The Totally NEW Team Corwin Thread

February 21st, 2014, 19:00

I know JM doesn't have anything in the level 5 range. Not sure about Leywind. Aletys is already holding 6 on that toon (of course she's holding…). Phuury was lagging behind on XP compared to the rest of you, but I've got Wouldii (FvS with monk splash) sitting at level 7 so I've possibly got some options there.

I guess we'll throw the Big Book in the shitter this week and figure something out on the fly.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Let's Get to Work / / Detroit Red Wings: Welcome, Coach Blash!

Chatted with JM a bit this afternoon, and she's not sure she's feeling well enough to join us tonight. She said to plan on going without her, that if she feels better later, she'll send us a Skype tell.

Oh, and she's got a level 7 toon, so when we get our 5's up there, she'll be able to join us on our alts.

Hi guys, sorry I'm missing another week. Neither Leywind nor I have a level 5 or 7. While my Wiz is ready to TR I don't currently have the time to play DDO during the week since I need to play Eschalon 3 and M&MX for reviews for the Watch and I won't be home all this coming week to do either. I thought we planned to run our next TR's together from Korthos.

I parked mine at the harbor just after Korthos….a few of us have extra level 5 toons we can run, but for the next tr group I thought we were running Korthos solo and going from there. If I miss understood I can figure out something.

Today will be epic toon day….Will throw a call about 45 from now and we can sort it then.

— Bart and Corwin should just admit that when it gets down to it, I will have the final say.

Ok, now I'm confused. I thought the "next TR group" was our current Friday toons … or are we talking about those you guys recently TR'd? Having another set we only play on Fridays when all are there means we'll be in the same boat we are now with our level 16 Friday toon, that if someone is out we don't play them. We'll just have more toons parked.

It was my impression that the current TRs Dte mentioned (at level 5) were an alternate group, to keep Peter's head from exploding from lack of TRing. I was going to pick up Rachail with that group, but y'all outleveled her already. Maybe I'll pick up Aerii then once y'all hit 10. We're still looking forward to the next TR group.

I could use a DA run or two to get enough tokens for another heart. I have a heart on Mirys, but most of my characters are heartless. I think I only need a few more, then I'll be ready.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Trap monkey #1: Aletys
Trap monkey #2: dte
Healing ability #1: Peter
Healing ability #2: JM
Melee #1: CM
Melee #2: Az
Open #1: Corwin wizzy
Open #2: Reywind wizzy
—————
Looks like we've got the makings of a plan. As mentioned before, we've got a good while before these decisions have to be finalized and it seems that most of us have some flexibility so we should be good to go.

I put together RhoGu's build last night and started tinkering with a druid build for Phuury. Not in a big hurry since neither toon will come around until Shadohe gets capped. She's about half way thru 18 now with lots of XP-rich areas available, so I'd say a few weeks should be sufficient.

Originally Posted by Aletys
Ok, now I'm confused. I thought the "next TR group" was our current Friday toons … or are we talking about those you guys recently TR'd? Having another set we only play on Fridays when all are there means we'll be in the same boat we are now with our level 16 Friday toon, that if someone is out we don't play them. We'll just have more toons parked.

Sorry for the confusion. The plan above is our plan for the "next wave" which we'll start running once we get the current Friday toons to lvl20. RhoGu is my toon for that task. The level 5's are completely separate from that. The current group (lvl16) is also completely separate from that, although there is a possibility that your toon for that task also happens to be your current lvl16. I don't think that was your intent, but it is a possibility.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Let's Get to Work / / Detroit Red Wings: Welcome, Coach Blash!

Originally Posted by Cm
I parked mine at the harbor just after Korthos….a few of us have extra level 5 toons we can run, but for the next tr group I thought we were running Korthos solo and going from there. If I miss understood I can figure out something.

Yep. Korthos plus the 4 harbor solos and then they go on ice. That run got RhoGu to 3rd rank of lvl2. I believe others have made lvl3 on the same content due to XP tomes and/or XP pots.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Let's Get to Work / / Detroit Red Wings: Welcome, Coach Blash!

Originally Posted by dteowner
Yep. Korthos plus the 4 harbor solos and then they go on ice. That run got RhoGu to 3rd rank of lvl2. I believe others have made lvl3 on the same content due to XP tomes and/or XP pots.

Rachail is a bit ahead of that, but not by much. She's done a couple of the Harbor quests beyond the solos. So I guess I'll pick her up there then, unless something happens.

I have enough tokens for a heart, though I do have two inactive TRs. Aerii is stuck at 10 due to lack of interest. Then again, that's all of my DDO characters.

Not bad, a across-the-board DPS gain for the two weaker PrEs (and lunge is no longer worthless!).

Other U21 news is that the new Divine Crusader ED has been kicked back to the drawing board following poor reception. I glanced at it, and it appeared to be a weak dps/casting hybrid, not good enough at either to justify taking it over other EDs actually focused on casting or dps.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Sorry for the confusion. The plan above is our plan for the "next wave" which we'll start running once we get the current Friday toons to lvl20. RhoGu is my toon for that task. The level 5's are completely separate from that. The current group (lvl16) is also completely separate from that, although there is a possibility that your toon for that task also happens to be your current lvl16. I don't think that was your intent, but it is a possibility.

Ah, ok, thanks. One question though … I thought we had planned on running the Friday group into the epics, at least for a while. Has that been shelved? I hate the idea of spending all this time getting them up there, and then not running any epic stuff. That would allow us to run some raids, etc. together … I know some in our group don't care much for pugging.

And running through the Wheloon chain & not doing the epics afterwards seems like a real waste (yeah, I don't really like the Wheloon prison stuff, in case you hadn't figured it out by now, lol).

Ok lets see if I have it right. Current 16 Fridays, "A Team",will move up the chain including into epics. When we get up there and want a change of scenery, people are missing, whatever the case may be, we will run the new TR only on Friday as well. "B Team". Anyone who has or wants to can run an alt TR as well just for change of pace.

Long story, we will have two full Friday-onlys in the future. No time set on when to start the second bunch…We have all volunteered for a specific role, but we won't have to run them until everyone is ready. It was just to give us some alternatives on Fridays. Some love epic stuff, others not so much, so once the current toons hit epic, we could alternate with the "B" team.

I have Shorty parked for team B and also TR'ed Softy whom I have been playing some.

I should be here for tomorrow btw. Unfortunately if we do have any MIA this week I am not sure we all have toons at anything but epic to run. We do still need to sort out the rules of running for "B" team, will we hold off unless full group for example but lets make those decisions when we are all on and can discuss them.

— Bart and Corwin should just admit that when it gets down to it, I will have the final say.

Generally, we stop focusing on the Friday toons once they cap (or slightly before). There's a few people to blame for that and various reasons to blame them, but I'll take a healthy share of the heat. I just don't get overly excited about character development at epic levels. Since I hold Ye Olde Grimoire of Astounding Proportions, I have a certain undue influence on our direction and I tend to favor a fresh wave of TRs. Given the other folks that bear some blame and the logistics involved, it's been a fairly easy sell so far.

Now, as you might have noticed recently, epic seems to be our go-to alternative when we've got absences. That means that (unless someone gets antsy and TRs quickly, which hasn't happened in the past) rather than our current hodge-podge, we'll have the current Friday toons to be those alternative epic toons. If everyone agrees to behave, those toons should stay fairly close together.

I'm open to a different approach if the group desires, but that's the logic behind what we've done in the past.

edit- another reason we've jumped to a new wave is that people tend to be bored with their role after a year or so of playing. If we run to 28/30, people are stuck in their current role for many more months. A TR wave allows people to try new things or return to old things- I'll do my first tour as a trap monkey (with the group, at least); Corwin gets back to his caster roots; Az gets to tinker with some new crazy uber-build; and so forth.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Let's Get to Work / / Detroit Red Wings: Welcome, Coach Blash!

I will be there this week as I have now returned. I really like the idea of playing epics one week out of every 4 just for variety. Whether that should just be our current group once they reach that level is a different issue. I think it might be fun to mix and match with whatever epics we have available sometimes, especially when people are away. I DO think that an under 20 group should progress together. Can't wait to play on Friday, I have withdrawal symptoms!!

I think the reason epic has been our go-to is because the level restrictions aren't as harsh there (we generally aren't streaking anything), and there are too many areas where we have some people able to run and others not. I have a 3, a 10, a 15, a 16, a 19, two 20's, a 22, a 23, and a 25. That leaves some hefty gaps outside Epics.

I can take a hefty dose of blame as well, since I'm not fond of the levels in Commoner post 20, and most of the content is poorly balanced. If you're like Peter, and have most of the relevant-to-build ED's maxed out, then you basically have no progression to speak of.

I agree with Corwin that pre-20 characters that run together should stick together, as much as possible. The differences in xp requirements, plus time issues, inability to solo/pug, or whatever, means it's more difficult to play catch up. In Epics, regardless of TR the XP reqs are the same.

I'm afraid I won't be running an uber build this go 'round. Rachail is a modification of Mirys' old Bard build, since I lack the interest to run another trap monkey (I have three currently around, and have ran one other before. So I will not likely take that role for some time). I have some ideas for a TR, but I'll wait for a bit since there may be changes coming I want to know about before committing the plan.

Not a terrible build I guess, but it's a rough one, and one I was not awake for the initial development. I haven't started a character with this little planning since I first made the mistake of creating Rachail as a Paladin, some 4+ years ago. And quite frankly, it was sheer stubbornness that pushed her to 20; I should have deleted and rerolled as basically anything else except Barbarian.

Currently, I am not working Saturday. As always, I won't truly know until 2:30 or so tomorrow afternoon, when most of the crew flees and I'm the only one there.

Given the last 4 days, I may be late, however. I know what I should have waiting, which would be roughly 10 hours worth of work. But then, I expected that today. And got an extra hour and a half.

I'd like to see us keep focused on the current friday group. At least through the menace series please. I mean we've never done them together with a friday group. It's always been whoever was available at the time. Because SOMEONE (I won't name names) had already abandoned the group to their own devices.